Oilers Russian Prospect Will Not Be Making The Jump To North America
Maxim Berezkin has snubbed an NHL move to sign a two-year extension with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, forcing the Oilers to wait on their high-upside, power-forward prospect's North American debut.
Video Transcript
Do you think that they should be focused on trying to add players through trades this summer or, or what do you think the top priority should be here?
Yeah, I don't think they're gonna have much choice, to be honest.
Like, we forget about Jeff Skerr too.
That was kind of a flop in Edmonton as well, right?
But, I think there's a few things that have to happen here.
I mean, there's a long, talk about list of to-dos in Toronto.
There's a list of to-dos in Edmonton too, right?
Finding a coach is right at the top of that, priority list.
It sounds like Bruce Cassidy may not ever get permission to interview with Edmonton, and the NHL's gonna stand by that.
so the, the Vegas might not let him do that, and if that's the case, they're gonna have to figure out what coach is going to be the best fit for this group, and I think they're looking for somebody who has won before, can push buttons, is respected enough by the elite players on this team to be coached.
I think that's a thing.
and then I think some of these players are gonna be interesting for Edmonton to bring back.
I think they wanna bring Connor Murphy back.
I think that's a priority for them.
I think they're looking at Jason Dickinson, but I think money matters, as it does with Connor Ingram.
I think they liked him, but I don't think they wanna overpay for him.
I don't know that I would, make a lot of other decisions until that coach is hired, because you wanna talk to the coach and go, "Who do you want to coach?"
Because there's a lot of talk around here about Darnell Nurse, for example, and whether or not he'd be willing to waive, and it doesn't sound like he is, but if he would be, would the Oilers be able to trade him?
You don't necessarily wanna do that if, one, the consequence of that is that you anger Connor McDavid, and two, you get a coach in there that wants Darnell Nurse on his team, right?
If that's the case, then you don't necessarily wanna trade or move Darnell Nurse, bring in a coach, and go, "Man, I wish I had a Darnell Nurse," right?
So it kind of depends on the order in which they do things, but I do believe they probably should stay away from July 1.
I don't think they wanna be big players there.
Now, if there's, you know, a player that comes to them and says, you know, "Yeah, I'm really interested in Edmonton.
I'm happy to take a deal here to play with Connor McDavid or Dreisaitl."
Let's say, for example, an Alex Tuch out of Buffalo.
I don't know that that's an option for them.
I think at 10 million bucks, that's probably not on their radar.
But, if that's what he's gonna get somewhere.
But if he comes in and he says, "Look, yeah, I want the opportunity to play here," you know, then I think the Oilers should look at it.
Outside of that, I don't think they wanna go and grab smaller depth pieces like they tried to grab before.
I think the T- the Mangiapanes, the Skinners, the Arvidssons, those players just didn't work, right?
The, and part of that is because of the ice time for stars and the meshing chemistry with those guys.
I think it just doesn't play out.
So I think you gotta make trades.
I think you gotta sign the guys you really wanna keep, and then you gotta work on some of the holes that you have on, in your goaltending and other things like that.
And a lot of that's gonna be conversations with the new coach, whoever that winds up being.
